Alice Springs: Why half an hour ...?

After the long flight and the subsequent extreme sightseeing in Sydney, the sleep was very restful. Today, the overnight stay at the airport hotel also benefited me. It was less than three minutes' walk from the reception check-out to the airline counter. So if I had made it to the counter right away ...

But it went relatively quickly and after a whopping 2,050 kilometers of flight, I landed in Alice Springs at 12:45 p.m. Or so I thought ... Because I actually arrived in Alice Springs at 12:15 p.m., because in Alice Springs it is half an hour earlier than in Sydney. I already have difficulties remembering the time difference. But converting it into half hours ... No. I'm not doing that. I leave all my clocks set to Sydney time. I don't care. I'll just arrive everywhere half an hour early ... Better than late ...

When you arrive in Alice Springs, the heat hits you in the face. It's around 35°C and everywhere is extremely dry. Then I took over my first rental car on the trip, a nice, discreetly painted Mitsubishi 'Something'...

But that seems to be the fashion color of the season here, I've already seen many cars in that color.

So now I'm in the Outback and almost in the geographical center of Australia. Where does the name Outback come from? It is related to the perspective of the former coastal inhabitants of Australia facing the sea. For them, the Outback was everything 'out there behind our back' - the infinite expanse behind our back.

Alice Springs is a former telegraph station, each 1,500 kilometers from Darwin in the north and Adelaide in the south. This station still exists today as a museum. The surrounding buildings are still intact and show what the rooms looked like at that time.

After visiting the museum, on the way back to the parking lot I saw some signs pointing to various hiking trails. I decided to walk along one of the trails for a short distance, not too far because it was scorching hot and my water bottle only contained a sip of water. Yes, I know, that's how the stories of the lost usually begin ...

But it turned out well for me. This shimmering red earth is something special and I immediately noticed this eerie but wonderful silence. I took a few photos, turned a corner, and suddenly two pairs of eyes looked at each other in surprise. One pair of eyes was mine...

We looked at each other for quite a while and then the kangaroo disappeared calmly into the bush. I, on the other hand, was totally excited, although it will probably become normal to see these animals here. Maybe an Australian in Germany would also be very excited if he saw a deer for the first time and we would just smile at him tiredly ... but I found the encounter incredibly beautiful and was happy about it all day long ...

Another fun fact, where does the name Kangaroo come from? I heard that on the city tour of Sydney: When the British encountered the Aboriginals, they asked in the best English "What kind of animal is this?". The Aboriginals answered, "Kangaroo". Translated: "I don't understand you" ... The story is not proven, but it has also not been disproven yet ...

Why leaving the car outside at night is 'Danger' and why I had to show my passport to the police, I'll tell you tomorrow ...